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Colorado legislature gives final OK to marijuana driving limit

ARAPHAHOE COUNTY,CO--APRIL 18TH 2009-- Arapahoe County Deputy Sheriffs, Abbas Montoya, talks with a youth that was pulled over in a parking lot near University Blvd and Dry Creek Saturday evening. The driver of this car turned abruptly into the parking lot after noticing a patrol car behind them, the officer noticed the smell of marijuana coming from the car. All inside (three youths) were searched as well as their vehicle and no marijuana was found. Tickets were issued however for curfews and for possession of drug paraphernalia. THE DENVER POST/ ANDY CROSS (THE DENVER POST | ANDY CROSS)

The torturous journey through the Colorado legislature of a proposal to set a stoned-driving limit ended Tuesday, when the state Senate gave final approval to the plan.

The latest iteration of the proposal, House Bill 1325, now goes to Gov. John Hickenlooper, who has said he supports the plan. The bill sets a limit of active THC — the psychoactive chemical in marijuana — that drivers can have in their blood before juries can presume they were too high to drive.

A marijuana plant (Associated Press file)

Tuesday's 24-11 vote in favor of the measure came without discussion and it belied the difficulty the proposal has had at the state Capitol. The bill was the sixth try in the past three years for supporters of a limit. Two separate but identical proposals — a stand-alone bill and a provision amended into a bill on recreational marijuana regulations — both failed earlier this year in Senate committees.

Supporters say the limit is needed to stem the rising tide of stoned-driving cases in Colorado, especially now that voters have legalized use of marijuana for adults.

"The reason I keep coming back," Sen. Steve King, a Grand Junction Republican who sponsored the bill, said Monday, "is because the numbers are going the wrong way."

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Opponents of the plan say the science behind the limit is unsettled and that the bill could lead to sober drivers being convicted. Many worried that the bill would unfairly punish medical-marijuana patients.

"To take this standard and apply it to those who use (marijuana) as medicine is to me not appropriate," said Sen. Pat Steadman, D-Denver.

The bill does not change anything about how police identify, stop, question or test stoned drivers. Except in extreme circumstances, drivers would have to give consent to have their blood drawn — though they could lose their licenses if they refuse a request for a blood test.

The bill's impact is in the courtroom, where it creates a "permissive inference" — essentially a nudge — to juries that people with more than 5 nanograms of THC per milliliter of blood were stoned. That is a smaller impact than in previous years, when versions of the bill made it an automatic conviction to drive with a THC blood level above the limit.

Ultimately, relaxing the standard proved the key to getting the bill through the legislature — though it took a last-minute bill and a careful committee assignment in the Senate to get it to Tuesday's vote.

"We've come to a good compromise," Sen. Andy Kerr, D-Lakewood, said during debate on the bill Monday.

John Ingold: 303-954-1068, jingold@denverpost.com or twitter.com/john_ingold